


Supernumerary

by shopfront



Category: Sanctuary (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, First Dates, Mission Fic, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 12:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15364737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: After finishing up at the DEO, Lucy Lane decides she needs to take a break to figure out what she wants to do next. She hops on the next plane out of National City and ends up in Old City. Once there, her plans for a relaxing city break are quickly de-railed when an Abnormal on the loose nearly runs her down in broad daylight.





	Supernumerary

**Author's Note:**

> supernumerary  
>  _adjective_
> 
> present in excess of the normal or requisite number, in particular:
> 
>   * (of a person) not belonging to a regular staff but engaged for extra work.
> 


“‘Just take the first flight you see, Lucy,’” she muttered to herself in a mocking tone as she rummaged in her bag for her sunglasses.

After a moment she gave up with a huff and started looking around her, squinting. She’d passed a street market a few blocks back, but she wasn’t expecting to need sun protection while walking so she hadn’t tarried there for long. But now, of course, she was surrounded by residential buildings and the odd pawn shop, and nothing that looked like it might be useful.

“‘It doesn’t matter where you go. You just need to get away for a bit and go somewhere new.’ God, this is definitely the last time I take advice from Lois,” Lucy continued in a mocking undertone.

With a sigh, Lucy turned on her heel to start backtracking. Before she could start walking, however, someone large flew out of the alley beside her and knocked her off her feet. Landing hard on one knee, Lucy looked up ready to yell at the clumsy idiot who wasn’t watching where they were going, and found herself looking up at- but Lucy wasn’t sure what she was looking at.

A choked off rumbling noise came from the creature’s mouth. Lucy froze. Covered in shaggy looking fur, it had an oddly lean, humanoid look to it before it dropped to all fours. Even bent over, it was still taller than Lucy would have been if she’d still been on her feet and she swallowed hard as she stared up at it.

“Oh, come on,” Lucy said faintly as she looked into overly large, black eyes, and the thought occurred to her that it didn’t seem particularly hostile. But then the creature blinked, showing off eyelids that moved vertically, and barred its teeth. Lucy scrambled backwards. But before she had time to really regret not bringing her weapon with her on vacation, the creature loped off again.

The blasting of a car horn jolted her back to her senses. Lucy struggled to her feet in time to watch the car careen up onto the opposite sidewalk in an attempt to avoid running the creature down. Behind it, a van swerved wildly and then took a sharp turn to follow the creature down a side street. Lucy stared, and then stumbled again in surprise as a man and a woman burst out of the alley. Each only narrowly avoided careening into her, splitting apart to run either side of her and then joining back up just as they hit the kerb.

“Oh no you don’t,” she muttered as they dodged traffic and legged it after the van without paying her any mind. Quickly scooping up her bag from the pavement, she set off after them.

At first she thought she’d been too slow. When she turned into the side street, the van, creature, and both people had all already disappeared.But Lucy just frowned and stepped up her pace, weaving through the maze of cross streets and hesitating at each corner only long enough to glance up and down for signs of movement. Hampered by a slight limp from her fall, it took her a few blocks to find her stride. Once she had, she began to notice that the streets she was jogging down had grown noticeably quieter.

Finally she stumbled across two men. One of them looked very familiar from the back, and they were huddled near the same van that she’d seen driving so erratically. At their feet lay a very still mountain of fur.

“What exactly is going on here?” she barked. Both men startled, and Lucy had to force back her amusement at their expressions.

“Oh boy,” one of them said as he turned to look at her. He ran a hand through his blond hair and then pasted on a winning smile. “Listen, ah, whatever you think you just saw-”

“That isn’t human, and it isn’t a regular animal either,” Lucy said sternly. She cut him off when he began to protest and slipped her military identification out of her bag so she could wave it at them threateningly. “Don’t bullshit me. I want to know exactly what’s happening here.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” a female voice said from behind her. Lucy spun around and came face to face with the same woman who’d nearly knocked her down again. She was wearing a leather jacket and an exasperated expression. A gun, altered in a way that Lucy didn’t recognise, dangled carelessly from her fingers. Lucy’s hand twitched towards her bag again for her own weapon that remained stubbornly at home and not on vacation with her, and she noticed the woman notice the movement. But to Lucy’s relief, she was already holstering the gun and holding up her hands in a placating gesture.

“And you are?” Lucy asked blithely, as if she hadn’t given away that she was concerned about her safety.

“Not interested in talking,” the woman said. She leant sideways to speak around Lucy. “Hey Will, I reckon this is Magnus’ speciality, not ours. What do you think?” she asked, with a dismissive gesture that encompassed both Lucy and the outstretched ID in her hand.

The blond man ran a hand through his hair again and sighed. “Kate, we can’t just take her-,” Will started to say, frowning.

“Ah, guys?” the other man said. “I hate to interrupt the party, but we don’t have long before this baby wakes up again.”

Will and Kate both grimaced at each other and then looked at Lucy.

“Come on,” Kate said while Will went to help the other man lift the creature up. Some cursing and bickering followed, but Kate ignored it in favour of looking Lucy up and down with a smirk. “Hope you don’t worry too often about stranger danger. Because no matter how creepy this is about to sound… if you wanna to know so bad, you’re gonna have to get in the van and come with us.”

*

Climbing into the passenger seat of the van, Lucy took the opportunity to reflect on her inability to take an actual holiday. She also took the chance to slip her hand into her bag and get her phone ready to speed dial James if she needed to. But she hesitated as she scrolled through her contacts. Kara wasn’t too much further down in her phone, and she at least stood a better chance of raising - or more likely, providing - help quickly if the weirdos chasing impossible creatures turned out to be dangerous weirdos.

The engine gunning to life startled her from her thoughts as the driver, introduced as a distracted ‘ah, hi there, I’m Henry, into the van quickly-now-please-oh-god,’ put the van into reverse and got them on their way. Despite the somewhat concerning series of events leading her to be in the van at all, Lucy was at least grateful to be up front. Instead of in the back, where the others seemed to be struggling to get a second dose of drugs into whatever the creature was.

“Don’t worry, we should be fine!” Henry said loudly over a muffled thump and a lot of swearing as they left the backstreets of Old City and merged onto a crowded road. “Fuzzy back there tends to wake up quick when the sedation wears off, but it shouldn’t regain full range of movement for at least another half an hour. Or so. Probably. They’ll figure it out!”

Another thump caused the van to rock as they pulled up at a red light. Lucy clutched at the armrest on her door to steady herself, and then watched incredulously as Henry waved in apparent unconcern at a car full of kids staring at them from the next lane over.

“And if somebody notices- _that_?” Lucy asked as a third thump rocked the van harder.

Henry just continued smiling at her, though it was starting to look a little more like a stressed baring of teeth, and glanced over his shoulder. “Guys? Hey, guys? Everything alright back there?”

“Oh, yeah, we’re just fine,” Kate replied in a deeply sarcastic tone that made Lucy want to laugh.

“Perhaps you’d like to take over if we’re not sedating it quickly enough for your liking? Maybe let me drive?” Will asked, also sounding irritated. Lucy resisted the urge to twist in her seat so she could join Henry in watching the struggle. Instead, she kept to her strategic hold on her door in case things escalated and an escape into traffic became preferable.

Henry blanched. “Nope, no, I doubt that’s necessary. I’m sure you’re doing a great job!” he replied hastily and then turned back to grimace at Lucy before continuing in an undertone. “They actually are doing fine. Don’t let the violence fool you, we usually have way more problems with capture missions than this.”

Lucy let her eyebrows inch slightly upward in response.

“Er, by which I mean we are all consummate professionals and everything is absolutely fine and dandy at all times. With no violence. None whatsoever. And also nothing ever goes wrong, I swear,” he finished awkwardly, turning his eyes hurriedly back to the road.

The thumping did seem to be growing fainter, though. A few minutes later, it faded away altogether and Kate’s voice punctuated the growing silence with a huffy ‘finally’ as the light went green and Henry put his foot down.

“Won’t be long, now,” he said cheerily, drumming his fingers nervously against the wheel. “We’re already pretty close to- ah, there it is.”

He gestured ahead with a nod of his head, and Lucy leant forward to peer up through the windscreen. A gigantic, gothic monstrosity of a building loomed ahead of them. Ringed by a high gate and what looked to be a deep boundary of gardens, Lucy was surprised to realise the building was spread across more than one city block.

“That’s where we’re taking this thing?” Lucy asked, still staring. “What is it, a university or something?”

“Nope,” Kate said suddenly from behind them. She leant forward between their seats, looping her arms around the headrests for purchase as she angled herself forward to follow the line of Lucy’s gaze. The leather of her glove brushed lightly across the top of Lucy’s shoulder as Kate turned her head to grin at her. Up close like that, Lucy couldn’t help but notice the long sweep of her lashes and the cheeky twinkle in her eye. “That’s the Sanctuary.”

*

“Look, I know how to keep a secret,” Lucy found herself protesting some time later. After a long meandering trip along what seemed to pass for a driveway, Henry had dropped Kate and Lucy off near a set of truly gigantic doors. Then he’d taken the van, and the creature inside, off to some unknown and out of sight place. Kate had, in turn, delivered Lucy inside and up a few flights to stairs to what had turned out to be a rather large office furnished with surprisingly comfortable if antique looking sofas. “If you let me leave I won’t tell anyone about the….“

She trailed off awkwardly, not sure quite how to describe what was essentially a very odd looking yeti of still unknown origins that apparently frequented busy main roads.

“The Sasquator, or four legged Sasquatch. Quite a beautiful specimen from Kate’s account, though of course I haven’t had a chance yet to examine it myself.”

The sofas had turned out to belong to a woman named Helen Magnus, who had seemed surprised but unflustered when Kate thrust Lucy at her and then also disappeared off into other parts of the building. Helen had simply asked whether Lucy would like tea before launching into a series of increasingly probing questions. It wasn’t until a good ten minutes afterwards when she’d given in to the urge to send a surreptitious text or two, that Lucy realised Kate had lifted her phone from her handbag on her way out the door.

“Right. A Sasquator. Whatever that is. So, about me keeping secrets so I can leave?” Lucy asked, stumbling over the unfamiliar name.

“I’m aware of your military background and your work with the DEO, Ms. Lane. I have no concerns about you being able to keep a secret if you wish to,” Helen replied from behind the solid wood desk that dominated the room. She was leaning back casually in her chair, legs crossed and hands folded sedately in her lap as she watched Lucy.

Lucy narrowed her eyes. “How on earth- my work with the DEO is classified. I’ve been in this room for little more than half an hour, and you haven’t been near a phone or a computer since I entered. What exactly is going on here?”

Helen’s lips quirked, and she nodded. “Perhaps I am simply aware of your resume and the classified status of your most impressive achievements. You’re not the only one with friends in high places, Ms. Lane.”

“If you think for one second that my friends in high places won’t notice if I go missing,” Lucy said, putting as much strident confidence into her voice as all her military training could muster. “Then you’re going to be in for a rude surprise.”

“Oh, I don’t mean you any harm,” Helen said quickly. She rose from her seat and walked neatly around the desk to settle in the chair next to Lucy’s. Lucy fought back the urge to shift away, simply raising her chin in defiance of Helen’s soothing expression. “I’m not trying to threaten you into silence. Quite the opposite, actually. I was genuinely surprised to find you here earlier, but it was lucky for us that you ran into my team today. A contact of mine recently told me about your skillset and that you might be in the area looking for… shall we say alternatives to the DEO to occupy yourself with? I was rather hoping you might consider staying with us for a little, and seeing if you might interested in the work we do here.”

Lucy’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Helen.

Apparently unfazed, Helen leant forward as she watched Lucy closely. “Before you ask, Kate will of course return your phone. You would be free to come and go from the Sanctuary whenever and however you wish, though not all of the facility will be available for you to tour without an escort for what I’m sure at this point are obvious security reasons. But with your impressive record, I think you could offer a great deal to an organisation like ours and I suspect we could offer you a few benefits in return. I’d like you to take the chance to get to know us and what we do, if you’re amenable?”

Blowing out a huff of air, Lucy sat back in her seat. “You want to offer me a job?” she asked in disbelief after an extended pause.

Helen quirked an eyebrow and rose to her feet. “It’s all very hush-hush, I know. But a little birdie whispered in my ear that you might enjoy having a female superior again. Not to mention that - after working alongside aliens - your ability to be unruffled by strange events could be very useful here.”

Lucy studied Helen’s face in silence, unsure of how to answer that. As she did, the door opened behind them.

“Ah, the tea. Excellent, thank you,” Helen said with a smile over Lucy’s shoulder. “Do you prefer milk or sugar?”

Lucy opened her mouth to answer as she turned her head in the same direction and came up short at the sight of something - or someone - carrying a tea tray into the room and looking decidedly not human. Unlike the furry creature they’d brought down on the streets, this one walked entirely upright and didn’t seem to possess terrifying fangs. Which was a remarkable improvement, as far as Lucy was concerned.

“Lucy Lane, may I introduce an old friend of mine, Bigfoot. He assists us in our work here,” Helen said as the creature nodded at Lucy in greeting. Lucy opened her mouth to say hello, and then closed it again, still stunned.

Bigfoot placed the tray down on the small table between Lucy and Helen’s chairs and fixed Helen a cup without paying Lucy’s silence anymore attention than was required to look subtly amused by it. After Lucy shook her head in response to gestures towards the sugar pot and milk jug, he poured out a strong, dark brew and offered it to her. Lucy blinked for a moment longer, and then silently accepted the tea cup. Bigfoot grunted in a way that sounded vaguely approving and turned back towards the door. Lucy could have sworn she saw a smile under all that fur, but it was a little hard to tell. Still a little shocked, she turned back to Helen and found she was smiling at Lucy as well.

“I had a good feeling about you,” Helen said mysteriously as she took a sip of her tea.

“But I didn’t accept the job yet,” Lucy pointed out.

“True,” Helen said with a gentle nod of her head.

They stared at each other for a long moment until Lucy finally broke the stalemate to take a sip from her own cup. She quickly raised her eyebrows. “I normally drink coffee, but this is-,” she started to say, but cut herself off when Helen chuckled in a knowing sort of way. “I suppose I could extend my vacation just a little and spend a few days here.”

“Wonderful! I’ll have Bigfoot bring you a small sample of my personal tea blend and show you to one of the guest rooms. Henry can show you around a little today as well, if you like. Or you’re welcome to fetch your things from your hotel and simply focus on settling in and getting comfortable,” Helen said. She placed her cup down abruptly and reached for a phone before hesitating with her hand hovering above the handset. “If you wouldn’t mind doing me one small favour, though? Don’t mention to the others that aliens are real. I’d never hear the end of it.”

*

After simply dumping her retrieved bags on the end of the her new bed, Lucy had set off in search of Henry. But before she could reach the lab which Bigfoot had pointed her towards, she stumbled across Will. Mumbling something about genius nerds being impossible to pull away from their toys, he’d offered to show her around. He’d even kept the teasing to a minimum when she’d gaped and gasped at some of the creatures he showed her.

They hadn’t made their way very deep into the building before Will’s phone had gone off, and he’d diverted in a new direction while asking her if she wanted to join them on another mission.

“What are you looking for this time? The creatures back there didn’t look anything like the Sasquator, or Bigfoot,” Lucy said, picking up her pace to match Will’s as he wound through the many identical corridors that seemed to make up the Sanctuary. Lucy wasn’t even sure what level they were on anymore, unless they happened to pass a window, and she didn’t know how anyone could learn the layout.

“They’re not any sort of creatures. We call them Abnormals,” Will said distractedly as he tapped away at his phone. “And no, this one won’t be anything like the Sasquator. It’s not often we see two creatures that look alike, honestly.”

As they finally left the corridors and made their way into what appeared to be an equipment area, Lucy let out a low whistle.

“This is a lot of artillery for a civilian operation,” she said slowly as she walked along the row of tactical vests and guns.

“You’ve seen a little of what we’re dealing with,” Will said as he grabbed a vest for himself and handed another off to Lucy. “I used to be FBI so it was a little strange for me, too. But most of what we use is modified for tranqs, anyway, and I can’t say I’ve ever found myself wishing I had a little less firepower when an Abnormal goes rogue.”

Shrugging into the vest, Lucy carefully avoided looking at Will. “Henry said things go wrong all the time.”

“Did he?” Will asked, sounding both amused yet skeptical.

“Well, no. What he actually said was that things ‘usually go well, sometimes, maybe,’” Lucy replied pointedly as she turned back around and started zipping up.

Will let out a loud laugh and then covered it with a cough when they heard footsteps out in the hall. But it wasn’t Henry. Instead Kate appeared and leaned herself languidly up against the doorframe, propping herself up with a hand on each side of the door.

“Relax, it’s just me. Henry’s still geeking out over the new stun system Magnus asked him to make for tonight. Apparently it needs ‘a light touch’ or something. As though he actually makes anything that delicate, it’d never survive one of our van chases,” she said with a roll of her eyes. She watched as Lucy finished clipping things into place and then pushed off the doorframe, slipping down the row and through the tiny gap between Lucy and the vests.

It was a tight squeeze, and Lucy suddenly found herself conscious of every brush of skin and press of curves as she unsuccessfully attempted to shuffle out of the way.

“Van chases?” she asked, turning raised eyebrows at Kate and then back at Will.

Will shrugged. “Its a hobby. If Henry’s coming with, then you guys must have fixed the containment for the Sasquator already, yeah?” he asked Kate.

Kate just rolled her eyes a second time. “Duh,” she said as she began to suit up. “Now are you two ready or what?”

*

A gust of fresh air hit Lucy in the face as she stepped out onto the grounds and she stopped a moment to savour it. Just long enough for Henry to accidentally walk into her from behind and chivvy her towards the van. Once they were all strapped in, Henry gunned the engine and they took off, with Helen yelling a basic sort of briefing to Lucy, Kate, and Will, where they sat in the back. Between the occasional honk when Henry ran a yellow light and the noise of evening rush hour, Lucy somehow missed the crucial word ‘sewer’ until they’d parked in another unidentifiable backstreet and already begun to pry up a grate.

So much for fresh air.

“This Abnormal is very sensitive to stress while under pursuit,” Helen said to them as they made their way one-by-one with various levels of complaint down the ladder that had been beneath the grate. “It has highly evolved evasion instincts and it’s also very susceptible to injury, which is partly why it’s so rare. We need to be careful not to startle it. If we scare it off, we may not get another chance to find it before the blackmarket dealers that it escaped from hunt it down again.”

“Can’t be too sensitive if it’s down here,” Henry was saying with a wrinkle of his nose as Lucy landed on both feet at the bottom with a thump. She gave him a commiserative look, and fought the urge to cover her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

“So are we looking for another hairy creature or what?” Lucy asked, her fingers still twitching with the urge to block her nose. Will had given in, however, and it made his voice was nasally and muffled.

“I told you, not everything is furry,” he said, though he also turned an expectant look towards Helen.

She, in turn, looked amused as she began to lead the way down the tunnel. “No, what we are looking for today will be quite unlike the Sasquator you captured earlier. I haven’t encountered a Papilio Lucem before myself, but the reports indicate that it will be humanoid with elongated proportions. It has a number of billowing membranes that it can light up to draw attackers away from more crucial areas of the body, and I believe the effect will be quite ethereal if we’re lucky enough to observe it.”

Kate grimaced at Lucy as she passed. “Ethereal. In the sewer. Really.”

Lucy fell in between her and Will with a laugh. “At least it might be an improvement on the view?”

“Or those billowing membranes just end up splashing us with crap,” she retorted. Her eyes danced in the dim light when she cast a quick glance over her shoulder at Lucy, hair flying as she dossed her head with a derogatory snort.

“My money’s on the crap splashing, myself,” Henry called back to them. His voice echoed slightly, bouncing off the tunnel walls from where he walked up in front of the group with Helen.

“If you all don’t mind,” Helen interrupted. Lucy noticed her voice seemed even more proper underneath her frustration. “The plan is _not_ to startle it, so you might at least try to keep it down.”

They all subsided after that, though Lucy had to fight the temptation to tap Kate on the shoulder and start critiquing their location again. There simply wasn’t much to do as they trailed after Helen and Henry, who were in turn following the quiet beeping of a device in Henry’s hands.

Finally, though, the beeping coming from Henry’s hands sped up and he flicked the device off to quiet it. When they tiptoe’d around one last corner, they found the Papilio Lucem crouched in front of them at a tunnel junction. As Helen had predicted, great big colourful threads shivered and waved in the air around it. They shimmered and changed colour in a mesmerising pattern, even with the dimness of the sewers making them hard to see.

Only the splash of their footsteps broke the spellbound silence as they spread out, until they were each standing in front of one of the branching tunnel entrances. The Abnormal was already shifting uneasily at being surrounded. But the junction was wide enough that they could give it a wide berth and luckily it hadn’t panicked, yet.

Helen raised both her hands slowly, holding an end of a thick metal cable in each. The cable now stretched in a ring as well, held by the rest of the team and dipping in and out of the water on either side of each person. ‘Ready?’ Helen mouthed at them. When she’d received nods from each of them it turn, she connected the cable.

A slow steady blue pulse sparked along the cable from person to person until it had formed a ring. The Papilio Lucem reared up, membranes rippling wildly. Lucy heard a splash and two heavy groans. But the blue light was already beginning to emanate inwards from the cable, and the creature stilled and then slumped as the pulses washed over it. The membranes seemed to slump as well, drifting down out of the air and retracting until the creature had wrapped itself in them.

“Well done, everybody,” Helen said. The sound of her voice was loud after such a lengthy silence, but there was a proud smile on her face.

“It worked!” Henry cried with a fist bump that reminded Lucy unnervingly of Wynn. “Did you see that? Just like-”

“Let’s get it back the Sanctuary before we get too excited,” Helen interrupted, but the look she gave him was fond. Slowly they began to move towards the centre of the circle they’d created, bunching the cable up in their hands as they went. “Careful now,” she continued to instruct as they reached the creature and began to loop the cable around it. “We don’t want a cable to snag on the membranes, or for a trailing membrane to snag on something else when we move it. I suspect their delicacy may make them quite difficult to successfully heal.”

As they worked, the creature let out a sigh and turned over. Big eyes blinked up at Lucy, shimmering with the same changing colours at the membrane. She froze, mesmerised.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed once it had sighed again and closed its eyes, seeming to lose consciousness. “Why were dealers after it?”

“Parts,” Kate said grimly. Lucy’s eyes darted to her, shocked, but there was no joking grin on her face this time. She looked at each of the team in turn, but nobody contradicted her.

“The membrane is considered desirable for a variety of medical treatments,” Helen said, lips pursed.

“Oh,” Lucy said. Still, it was hard to reconcile the beauty of the creature with such a purpose. “If it’s so rare, I suppose it they must be useful treat-”

“None of them work,” Henry said, gritting the words out as he unfolded the make-shift stretcher they’d brought to carry the creature back to the van. “It’s all superstitious nonsense.”

Helen placed a hand briefly on his shoulder before turning back to Lucy. “It is not uncommon in the Abnormal community for superstitions to drive the blackmarket,” she said, somehow sounding both matter of fact and deeply angry.

“That’s horrible,” Lucy said blankly, still staring down at the Abnormal. The membranes were continuing to pulse with faint colours in time with the pulses of the cable, creating a semi-opaque cocoon for the creature. Shortly after, they were ready to bundle it onto the stretcher and start backtracking to the van. When Lucy finally looked up and away so she could help, she noticed Helen watching her with an approving expression.

Peak hour had well and truly passed them by once they’d emerged blinking back into the sunlight. Despite it being easier to talk, however, the trip back to the Sanctuary was much more subdued. Most of the interruptions came from the slight squelches Will and Kate made whenever Henry turned a corner too fast, leaving them cursing softly and shifting uncomfortably.

“I’ll probably need to spend much of today and tomorrow with keeping the Papilio Lucem under observation in case it has difficulties adapting to its new habitat,” Helen said casually to Lucy as they arrived back at the Sanctuary and piled out of the van. “But I should be free by tomorrow evening and I suspect we may have a few things to discuss by then. Shall we say 8pm? I can make us a booking at my favourite restaurant.”

Lucy shrugged, distracted as she helped to lift the stretcher out of the van. “Sure.”

“Excellent,” Helen said. She watched them a moment longer, and then turned away. “Henry, I’ll be adjusting the environmental protocols in the new habitat when you’re ready. I suspect the lights might be too bright for it after the darkness of the sewers.”

Once they had the stretcher clear of the van, Kate and Will stepped back at once, leaving Lucy and Henry alone at the head and foot of the stretcher. “Hey-,” Henry started to yell, but Will cut him off with a glower.

“It’s not heavy, you’ll be fine without us,” he said as he started after Helen, already undoing his vest as he walked.

“Yeah, and I desperately need a shower,” Kate grumbled. She didn’t bother with her clothes, just stomped after Will. The effect was somewhat diminished by the squelch of her boots with each step. Her voice drifted back to Lucy as they disappeared inside as well, as she complained to Will. “I can’t believe the new girl gets Alfredo’s and we just get slimed!”

“She has a point,” Henry said good-naturedly. “You good at that end or should I go find the Big Guy to help us?”

“No, no, I’m good,” Lucy said as she hoisted the stretcher a little higher with ease. “What’s Alfredo’s?”

“Oh, my god,” Henry said as they slowly manoeuvred their way around the van. “You are in for a treat. It’s only the best restaurant north of the equator!”

Lucy stared at him. “Really?” she asked flatly.

“Really,” Henry said with emphasis. “Hey, if you decide you want to do some sight-seeing tomorrow evening or something, just let me know. I’d be happy to take your place with Magnus at dinner. Or, hey, she seems pretty gung-ho about impressing you if she’s taking you to Alfredo’s. Maybe you could ask her to take me along? I make a great plus-one and-”

Lucy just started laughing as they carried the Abnormal inside, Henry still going a mile a minute.

*

“Is it everything you expected?” Kate asked. Lucy glanced up from her pasta in surprise. It could have been a simple question about the food, but there was something loaded about Kate’s tone that made her think otherwise.

“It’s lovely. I’m not surprised that Will and Henry were so upset they didn’t get to take Helen’s place for dinner,” she replied casually. Though she thought there was probably a twinkle in her eye to give away that she’d picked up on Kate’s real meaning.

Kate leant forward with a grin. “Nice deflection, but come on. Cough it up. Working with the Sanctuary is like a dream come true for you, right?”

Lucy opened her mouth and then hesitated. “What makes you think that?” she asked eventually.

“Oh, please. I saw you on the sidewalk when things started getting hairy with the sasquator yesterday. Even Will still panics occasionally when an Abnormal runs full pelt at us like that, so there’s no point pretending this is a whole new world deal for you,” Kate said, sitting back again with a derisive snort. She broke a piece off her bread roll to sop up the dregs of sauce that were all that remained of her own dish. “Besides, Helen wouldn’t be trying to woo you into taking the job with fancy dinners if it was. Henry says she usually just dangles the mystery of it all over new people’s heads and lets that do the work for her.”

Lucy carefully raised her fork to her mouth and took a bite while she considered Kate’s words. She was careful not to lose so much as a single drip of sauce due to her distraction, though, and it was all she could do not to groan when the taste hit her tongue.

“Good, huh? See. All the stops, no mysteries. Unless you count the unanswered question of what exactly they put in the food here to make everything taste like the best sort of crack.” The grin on her face was confident, even though Kate was careful to drop the volume of her last few words - despite their private dining room and the invisible quality their waitstaff all seemed to possess.

“How can you be so sure it’s not drugged when it’s this good?” Lucy asked, only half joking as she closed her eyes in bliss over another forkful.

“Don’t let Alfredo hear you suggest he doctors his dishes! Magnus will never get a table again,” Kate continued in a stage whisper, before laughing as Lucy pulled an exaggerated sad face and kept eating.

“So, you think you know why I’d want to work at the Sanctuary,” Lucy said once she’d finished and pushed her plate away. “But the thing is, I’m more curious about you. How did you get involved in all of this? It’s not the most usual line of work.”

“Oh, I’m really not that interesting,” Kate deflected with a faint grimace while their plates were speedily cleared.

Lucy leant forward, propping herself up slightly on her elbows for leverage so she could get closer. Kate looked surprised by the move, but Lucy just held her gaze steadily. “I beg to differ,” she said softly, answering Kate’s scoff with a smile as she dropped back and lazily toyed with the rim of her wineglass. “In fact, I suspect you have a lot of interesting stories to share. When you care to share them.”

Kate waited a beat, scrutinising Lucy’s face. But Lucy didn’t waver. Finally, just as their main courses arrived, Kate returned Lucy’s smile. “I’m more of a caring and sharing girl when it’s over dessert,” she said. Lucy scooted back to allow the wait staff to place her meal on the table, still tracking Kate closely with her eyes.

“I can work with that,” Lucy said. Kate just raised an eyebrow and waited in silence. “What else did you want to know about me?”

“I’ve never been to National City,” Kate said as she dug into her dinner. “Is it true that superhero you’ve got is an alien? Everyone here thinks it’s a load of bull and she must be some kind of Abnormal.”

Lucy chuckled into her wine before picking up her own knife and fork. “I could tell you, but then I might have to kill you,” she said as she began to eat. Kate’s eyes narrowed at the challenge, but Lucy just smirked back.

They both fell silent as they tucked into their meals, too busy enjoying the food to banter. Kate was the first to break the silence. “I can’t believe you ordered bunny,” she said with a pointed glance at Lucy’s food.

“Funny, I can’t believe you didn’t. You seemed like more of a red meat sort of girl,” Lucy said with a glance of her own down at Kate’s seafood dish. When Kate pointedly failed to disagree, Lucy scooped up some rabbit on her fork and held it out. “Try it, it’s really good.”

Kate leant forward reluctantly. “I don’t know. Wouldn’t it be better, y’know, alive and still cuddly?”

“Not compared to this,” Lucy said smugly as Kate closed her lips around it and her eyes went wide. “I told you,” she said as she carefully slipped her fork free. Kate just made a happy noise, still chewing.

“Still better cuddly,” she said once she’d swallowed.

Her eyes were dancing though, and the rest of the meal quickly devolved back into banter.

“Okay, so, back to your flying girl-hero. I’m guessing something related to… the Morrígan?” Kate asked once they were waiting again with just their wine glasses for company between courses. She was watching Lucy avidly and pouted slightly when Lucy just watched her in return without rising to the bait. “No? Okay, worth a try with the levitating thing but I suppose that one was a stretch given that the Sanctuary has only encountered three of them, total. What about-”

She tapped a finger against her lower lip as she thought, too distracted to notice their desserts appearing. The waiter arrived and left on silent feet, sliding Kate’s dessert noiselessly in front of her. Lucy’s shoulders shook slightly with laughter as she watched Kate’s eyes widen when she opened her mouth to keep guessing, only to pause as she finally noticed the plate.

“Perfect, brain food,” she said as she sunk a fork into her soufflé. Her next words were muffled by cake, though Lucy was fairly sure that wasn’t why they failed to make any sense. “I mean, she couldn’t be a vampire, she seems fair too stable. Not to mention the saving humans thing, unless it was some ploy to secure a food source, but… nah, even Tesla wouldn’t bother with something that elaborate.”

“Tesla?” Lucy asked, and then waved a hand to negate the question. Her own dessert sat unheeded as she watched Kate lick her spoon, and then notice that Lucy was watching her do so.

“What, you don’t want to know more about the Abnormal qualities of the man who invented electricity? Eh, you’re not missing much. He’s way less interesting than he thinks he is. No, what’s really interesting is the superhero bugs. I can never remember that ridiculous name Magnus said they had, but they’d be perfect - for a very short stint as a superhero. No, hmm, what else….” Kate sat back in her seat, spoon still in hand and eyed Lucy speculatively. “Not gonna give a girl a hint?”

Lucy shook her head and gave up on trying to follow the threat of Kate’s mostly rhetorical musings. Finally, she picked up one of the cannoli on her own plate. The shell crunched delicately beneath her teeth as she took a bite without looking away from or answering Kate, but Kate just shrugged carelessly as she spooned up another bite of soufflé.

She ate the morsel slowly, before licking the spoon in an equally slow, deliberate manner. “Your loss. I can keep guessing for hours. But will you keep a straight face when I mention the-”

“Have you considered that she might be telling the truth?” Lucy asked abruptly.

That, finally, stopped Kate in her tracks. “You’re kidding, right?”

Lucy just raised an eyebrow as she lifted her cannoli again. “Maybe,” she said before she took a bite.

“No way,” Kate said skeptically, before launching into another round of guesses that lasted right through to the end o0f their meal.

“So, if you’re not going to answer me, what do you say we blow this joint?” Kate asked, as she pushed back her chair and stood up. She leaned her hands against the table, looking down at Lucy with a slightly wild grin. “After last night I’d guess that you’ve barely seen more than the sewers around here. I reckon it’s about time you see the more fun side of Old City.”

“What, no night cap? No need to put the bill on the company credit card?” Lucy asked as she popped her napkin on the table and stood up as well.

“Nah, Magnus eats here all the time, Alfredo knows where to send the bill. Besides,” she said, her eyes skimming down Lucy’s body as they headed for the door. Another silent waiter appeared to open it for them, and Kate gestured for Lucy to go ahead first. “I have a better idea for a nightcap.”

*

Despite usually being mostly empty and quiet at any time of day, the Sanctuary seemed somehow hushed in the early hours of the morning. Dawn had just begun to break ever so faintly along the horizon as they’d slipped open the front door. Lucy still couldn’t believe anyone, let alone tiny Kate, could close that door quietly - but somehow she’d managed it.

A faint chirruping noise echoed up one corridor as they walked the silent hallways together, making Lucy wonder if something could have snuck out of its enclosure. But Kate didn’t seem concerned by the noise. Instead, she lead the way confidently through the building towards the wing that housed the living quarters.

“So, have you made up your mind yet?” Kate asked with a sly smile as they walked.

“About what?” Lucy asked in return, too busy enjoying the ambience to think the question through immediately. When there was no reply, however, she looked over and found Kate studying her with a more thoughtful air.

“Then I guess this is your last night at the Sanctuary,” she said once she’d realised Lucy had caught her looking.

“I suppose it might be,” Lucy said. Kate bit her lip, still studying Lucy blatantly as they turned into the hallway that led to the guest rooms.

When they reached Lucy’s door, Kate stepped closer. “I guess Alfredo’s and a night on the town isn’t such a bad way to finish your visit,” she said, voice low. “Unless there’s something else we could do to make your stay more memorable?”

Kate looked cocky enough that Lucy stepped backwards, letting herself bump into the closed door as a surprised look crossed Kate’s face.

“Oh, sorry,” Kate said quickly, already beginning to step back herself. “I must have misunderstood-”

A quick yank on the lapel of her jacket was enough to cut her off.

Lucy tugged Kate forward until they stumbled flush against each other. Kate smelt of smoke and booze and the bushes by the front door that she’d run her hands through on the way in, and the leather of her jacket was surprisingly warm against Lucy’s palm. But Kate’s skin felt warmer still, behind it.

“There might be something I can think of that would improve my visit. Besides, you promised me a nightcap,” Lucy said, grinning when the confidence began to return to Kate’s expression. Fumbling behind her for the doorknob, Lucy stepped back once more and tugged Kate after her into the room.

*

It was late morning when Lucy finally crawled reluctantly out of bed, already restless from her lack of morning run. Despite the other person sleeping soundly in her bed and the sun being higher in the sky than she’d have liked, jogging in loops along the high fence that surrounded Sanctuary was soothing. On her last loop, she diverted up a pebble covered path and stopped in the middle of a small, formal garden. Bent over, hands on her knees, she gasped for breath.

Footsteps crunching through the stones caught her attention before she’d entirely stopped huffing and puffing.

“You look like you’ve had an enjoyable workout,” Helen said, her eyes twinkling when Lucy looked up at her.

“It’s not a bad place to run,” Lucy said, straightening as she reached for the water bottle clipped to her waist. “I’m used to dodging people in parks, to be honest. This was much more peaceful. I hope it’s okay that I was wandering about?”

Helen inclined her head slightly as they began walking through the garden, falling into step with each other. “Of course. It’s only the habitat areas where you need an escort. Some of our guests can be a touch unpredictable from time to time. Though I suspect you wouldn’t have too many problems, not after seeing you with the Papilio Lucem the other day.”

Lucy upended her water bottle instead of replying immediately, sucking down the last few mouthfuls greedily. After she’d clipped the bottle back to her waist, she wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead and made a thoughtful noise. “It was definitely interesting.”

“Interesting enough for you to consider my offer?” Helen asked as she held a hand out to direct Lucy through a door, and then again on through another.

Already feeling turned around and slightly lost, as always, Lucy just followed her lead. “I’m tempted,” she admitted. “It’s very different to what I’m used to. I suspect you don’t have a lot of need for a lawyer, for one thing.”

“That we don’t, no. Though you might be surprised at the ways in which those skills might be put to use here at some point,” Helen said, directing her through another door. Lucy heard the faint sound of distant voices as Helen opened the next one, still too far away to be understood but sounding rambunctious and cheerful.

“What, do you get into legal disputes with other possibly-illegal organisations that hunt mythical creatures?” Lucy asked, straining a little out of habit to try and identify the voices.

Helen ducked her head with a wry smile. “Something like that,” she said as she stepped past Lucy to grasp the handle of yet another door. She hesitated, not opening it yet. “We’ve put together an early lunch to celebrate successfully settling the Papilio Lucem into it’s new habitat. Perhaps you might like to join us? It’s not often we manage such a rare find with so little distress, to either us or the Abnormal.”

“Sure,” Lucy said, puzzled by the change in subject.

“If there’s anything else you’d like to know, or see, before you make your decision, you will let me know?” Helen asked, and once Lucy had nodded she finally pushed open the door.

Lucy had been right about the voices being rambunctious. On the other side of the door they found Henry crouched down, partly behind a sofa, while Will and Kate pelted him with cushions. Bigfoot stood in the corner, watching them with an amused air from beside a table loaded down with food and drink.

Helen cleared her throat and everyone froze. Then, with awkward coughs and throat clearing, they quickly gathered the cushions up and busied themselves with fetching themselves plates or finding a seat.

“I barely noticed you leave this morning. I thought perhaps I’d missed you,” Kate whispered in Lucy’s ear when she approached the buffet a few minutes later.

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to give you the slip. I just really needed my morning run,” Lucy replied just as quietly as she reached for the potato salad.

Kate watched her closely for a long moment, and her cautious smile only widened at what she saw. “I can’t believe I like someone who enjoys jogging,” she said dismissively, but her hand came to rest on Lucy’s elbow as she spoke.

When they both turned around to head for the sofas with plates in hand, they nearly tripped over Helen.

“How delightful,” she said, seemingly about the crostini she reached past them to pick up except for how her eyes lingered on Kate’s hand. “I had a feeling you two might get along well at dinner.”

Kate’s mouth dropped open. Lucy gave them both a quizzical look as Kate made inarticulate noises.

“You didn’t get busy in the lab, you bailed on dinner deliberately!” Kate finally burst out while Helen took a delicate bite of her crostini. Then almost as quickly, Kate subsided. “Though Alfredo’s food is definitely worth getting pimped out for.”

Lucy choked slightly. “Pimped out?”

“There’s no need to be crass,” Helen said sternly, though gentle amusement coloured her tone as she passed them each glasses of wine one at a time with her free hand and then slipped past them to survey the full buffet. “I simply thought Lucy might benefit from getting to know the entire team better.” 

Kate’s lips quirked as she turned back to Lucy. “Still worth it, I hope,” she said, leaning in with a shrug. “Even if I’m supposedly crass.”

The whistle caught Lucy off guard as Kate pressed a quick kiss to her lips. When she looked over at the sofas, she caught Bigfoot smacking Henry upside the head while Will laughed at them.

“So did it work?” Kate asked, drawing Lucy’s attention back.

“Did what work?”

“Setting us up for dinner. Are you thinking about staying?” The question seemed casual, but Kate’s were fixed on the glass in her hand, swirling the wine as she waited for an answer.

“Oh, I think this place might be worth a closer look,” Lucy said, smiling back when Kate beamed at her. She nudged Kate’s shoulder with her own and tilted her head at the sofas in invitation, and then went to join the others with Kate following close behind.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fanmix inspired by "Supernumerary" by Shopfront](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138152) by [karrenia_rune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune)




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